Berlin Blockade

A Look Back at the Berlin Air-Lift (Pathfinder Magazine, 1949)

Last week, after the Russians announced they would lift the blockade on May 12 [1949], the airlift took a bow and added a modest nod at the 324-day record:


• 189,247 flights;

• 1,528,250 tons delivered;

• best day’s work: April 16 with 12,947 tons hauled in 1,393 flights.


– [and if the West had not chosen to answer the Soviet challenge in Berlin] there might never have been an Atlantic Pact or a Western German state. The Communists might have gone amok in France and Italy. Russia might have won the Cold War in the first heat.

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One Month Into the Berlin Blockade (Pathfinder Magazine, 1948)

The firm of Uncle Sam and John Bull flying grocers, kept the Western Allies in the Battle for Berlin last week… If the peace continues, the U.S. British estimated, by mid-July there will be enough food in Berlin’s stockpile to feed the 2 million Germans in western sectors of the capital until September 1… Supplying fuel and coal was another problem…


The article is accompanied by one cartoon from THE NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE.


Read more articles from PATHFINDER MAGAZINE…

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The Berlin Blockade: A Definition (R.O.T.C. Handbook, 1956)

In his 1989 book, Master Spy: The Story of Kim Philbystyle=border:none, author Phillip Knightley pointed out that when the Soviet spy Philby, stationed in Washington, discovered that the U.S. had no atomic bombs on hand, Stalin soon gave the order to commence the blockade of the German capital. That said, here is a two paragraph essay briefly explaining what the 1948 Berlin Blockade was and how the Anglo-American masters of West-Germany dealt with the issues at hand:

Soviet counter-action to American efforts to rebuild the European economy came swiftly. Besides rejecting participation in the program the Soviets, in October 1947, announced the organization of a permanent committee for coordinating the activities of the Communist parties in Europe…By June 1948 the Russians had cut off all land and water traffic with Berlin and the only means of entry was by air.

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